The other Morrissey on Weinstein, Spacey: The victims were asking for it

Ed MorrisseyPosted at 10:01 am on November 20, 2017

If the Moz gets a thumbs-up for his contrarianism, he also gets several thousand thumbs down for sense, morals, and sensitivity. In an interview with Der Spiegel, the singer Morrissey told an interviewer that he’s not buying any of the allegations against Harvey Weinstein or Kevin Spacey. These sound to him like people who tried playing the game and lost:

The British singer Morrissey defended both Kevin Spacey and Harvey Weinstein in an interview this weekend, claiming their alleged victims knew “exactly” what was going on — and chose to “play along.”

“And then they turn it around and say: I was attacked, I was surprised, I was dragged into the room.” …

“People know exactly what’s going on,” Morrissey reportedly said after being asked about the movie producer. “And they play along…But if everything went well, and if it had given them a great career, they would not talk about it.”

“As far as I know, he was in a bedroom with a 14-year-old. Kevin Spacey was 26 and boy 14 was wondering where the boy’s parents were. One wonders if the boy did not know what could happen,” he told Der Spiegel.

“I do not know about you, but I’ve never been in situations like this in my youth. Never. I always knew what could happen. When you are in somebody’s bedroom, you have to be aware of where that can lead to. That’s why it does not sound very credible to me. It seems to me Spacey has been unnecessarily attacked.”

Gee, I’m just guessing here, but maybe Rapp didn’t know because he was fourteen &#$%@*% years old at the time. That’s why we have age-of-consent laws, and why people go to prison for violating them. Adolescents don’t have the capability or sophistication to understand those levels of exploitation, including the underage groupies that pop stars use up like Kleenex. The Moz wants to excuse it with the oldest and lamest of all excuses for anything — everybody’s doing it, man. You can’t lock everyone up!

Well, we can lock them up as we find them, and send a message pour encourager les autres. This sounds like nothing more than a member of the protected guild attempting to defend his class’ rights to exploit people as they please, an entitlement for which prosecution would also be a rather potent cure.

Speaking of which, the Los Angeles Times added another name from the Hollywood pantheon to the list of alleged sex abusers. Multiple women have gone on the record to allege that recording tycoon Russell Simmons engaged in sexual assault. One model, Keri Claussen Khaligi, alleges that Simmons raped her with already-accused movie mogul Brett Ratner looking on:

“I looked over at Brett and said ‘help me’ and I’ll never forget the look on his face,” she recalled. “In that moment, the realization fell on me that they were in it together.”

Khalighi said that Simmons, who was then about twice her age, tried to force her to have intercourse. “I fought it wildly,” she said. He eventually relented and coerced her to perform oral sex, she alleged. “I guess I just acquiesced.”

Ratner, meanwhile, “just sat there and watched,” she said.

Feeling “disgusting,” Khalighi said she went to take a shower. Minutes later, she alleged, Simmons walked up behind her in the shower and briefly penetrated her without her consent. She said she jerked away, then he left. “It hurt so much.”

It’s not the first time that Simmons and Ratner have come under suspicion. The police investigated a similar claim sixteen years ago:

The pair’s conduct together has also been scrutinized by authorities. In 2001, a woman told Beverly Hills police that she was held against her will at Ratner’s mansion, Hilhaven Lodge, “by two males who both unlawfully touched her,” Lt. Elisabeth Albanese told The Times this month.

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office declined to file criminal charges against Ratner and Simmons due to insufficient evidence.

Thus far, Simmons and Ratner have denied all of the allegations. If these allegations prove true, we can already predict what will happen. The acts of these women to reveal the abuse will encourage more to come forward, as happened with Weinstein, Spacey, James Toback (who gets prominent mention in the LA Times piece too), and Roy Moore. And those will encourage others to reveal more exploiters among the powerful, and the walls will keep tumbling down, regardless of what the Moz thinks.

For those who wonder, Morrissey is no relation to me, as I have noted whenever asked. From now on, I may just use the distinction that “Michael Bolton” first offered in Office Space. “He’s the one that sucks.”